Sony may be winning this generation's console war by numbers alone, but it's pretty clear that the whole thing is not nearly as cut-and-dry as the Japanese console giant would like. The PS5 is still struggling with chip shortages that Microsoft has been able to overcome to some extent with raw financial power, both Xbox Series S and X have begun outselling the PS5 in Japan, and Microsoft's pending acquisition of Activision-Blizzard has gotten Sony nervously admitting that it can't possibly create anything to compete with Call of Duty.

Microsoft's moves and shake-ups have led to some response from Sony. Just last month Sony completed the acquisition of Destiny 2 developer Bungie, and earlier in the year they acquired a few indie studios like Haven Studios and Valkyrie Entertainment. All of these, however, would pale in significance to Sony purchasing Square Enix, as they've recently been rumoured to be planning.

Square Enix is the publisher behind major JRPG franchises like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, and NieR, and has been instrumental in pushing new JRPG series too, like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. It's, for all intents and purposes, the 'JRPG company,' and has long-running ties with Sony. Until 2014, in fact, Sony was one of Square Enix's biggest shareholders, before selling off all its shares for $47 million (significantly below their actual worth). 

Sony and Square Enix have had some good times together, and their convergence would feel like something of a late 90s/early 2000s reunion. Games like Final Fantasy VII through XII, Kingdom Hearts, Vagrant Story, and Chrono Cross made the Playstation 1 and 2 synonymous with some of the greatest JRPGs of all time and vice versa. For Sony to acquire Square Enix (and subsequently bring all those series back under the exclusivity umbrella) would hark back to what many regard as the 'glory days' of the Playstation, when the console was known as the place to play many of the greatest games to come out of Japan.

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This 'Back to Japan' feel would be bolstered by the fact that Square Enix is continuing to sell off its big western studios, which it's fair to say it's had a troubled relationship with. In the wake of selling studios like Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive and Eidos-Montreal, along with the Hitman, Deus Ex, Thief, Tomb Raider, and many other IPs, a lot of news has emerged about the strained relationship between the publisher and its western studios. There's been talk of Square Enix worrying that the western studios were 'cannibalising' its Japanese game sales (via Eurogamer), and some strong words from Eidos-Montreal about working with Square Enix.

The key takeaway from this is that Square Enix is very much returning to its roots in Japan-made games with Japanese design philosophies. If Sony were to acquire Square Enix, then it would be quite possibly its biggest games publisher acquisition yet, and could shift the Playstation's identity back towards being the Japan-centric console that it was known as through the PS1 and PS2 years. Granted, it wouldn't be as extreme given the huge clout of western-made Playstation series like Uncharted, God of War, The Last of Us, and Horizon, but it'd tap into that 2000s nostalgia.

This identity shift wouldn't just be of Sony's making, it would largely be shaped by Microsoft's moves too. The Bethesda buyout in particular, which has resulted in huge RPGs like Starfield, and apparently the next Elder Scrolls game, becoming Xbox exclusives, has removed one of the most significant western RPG developers from the Playstation.

In an echo of the early 2000s, in a few years time we could be at a point where a 'Playstation RPG' will mean games like Final Fantasy and Dissidia, while an 'Xbox RPG' will mean the likes of Elder Scrolls, Starfield, and (possibly) Fallout. With RPGs being the culturally significant genre that they are today, this split could have a serious impact on who buys which console. We're still a long way from having divergent games libraries like we had in the PS2 and OG Xbox days, but it will certainly make both consoles more distinct than they have been at any point since then.

That might not be such a bad thing for either Sony or Microsoft. In recent generations, the Xbox and Playstation seemed to be on a path towards homogeneity, not offering the same amount of unique games and exclusives as they had in past generations, and very much playing things safe. Recent acquisitions by Microsoft have shaken that up in a big way, and are forcing Sony to make its own moves that will ultimately help distinguish the PS5 and future consoles from its rival.

But from a neutral gamer's standpoint, it all feels a little dirty. Where exclusives in the past used to happen due to developer preference (Square Enix didn't want the expense of making Final Fantasy VII for N64 cartridges), or a publisher acquiring a studio, helping create a series, then nurturing it over the long term (God of War and Horizon on Playstation, Gears of War, Halo, and even Sea of Thieves on Xbox, for example), it's a little different when a series that gamers have been used to playing on their console of choice for years suddenly gets stripped away. 

We're living in a time where you can buy a PS5 with an eye to playing The Elder Scrolls 6 on it, or an Xbox Series thinking that you'll get to play both Halo and Final Fantasy on it, but have that stripped away from you due to ruthless business decisions. In some ways, these acquisitions are helping consoles distinguish themselves from rivals in a way they haven't for years, but the means by which they're doing it will inevitably be destabilising for players invested in one console or another.